United States Naval Academy - Lucky Bag Yearbook (Annapolis, MD)

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■i Batt fans give spirit to battalion football teams. Kegimental Sports With the start of the 1942-43 academic year, the Executive Depart- ment introduced a completely new intramural sport program at the Academy. As it is of the utmost importance to send every graduate to the fleet in perfect physical condition, the new program was designed to include all of the 3,000 midshipmen but those actively engaged in a varsity or plebe intercollegiate sport. The program functioned as follows: During each of the academic quarters a number of sports were selected for battalion and company competition. Each battalion and each company entered a team in the sports chosen and schedules were arranged between the various teams. At the end of the quarter the teams were ranked as to percentage of vic- tories and awarded points counting toward the company color compe- tition according to their relative standings. The competition for the highest rankings was intense, and the program as a whole proved most successful for all hands. under pressure, and all the other characteristics which make football a vital Navy sport were present in abundance in Batt. football. The 1942 season saw the Fourth Batt. come out on top, the First Batt. second. The Third Batt., which had monopolized the sport for the past four seasons, tied with the Second Batt. for third place. PUSHBALL . . . Our class saw a new sport introduced at the Academy. Pushball itself was very simple, the object being for a team to push a huge inflated rubber ball over their opponents ' goal. It was, however, as rough a sport as we have seen. No equipment was worn, and one hard game usually finished off a suit of old white works. But the bloodthirsty element was enthusiastic about the game. In the pushball league the Second Batt. placed first and the Fourth took second. The First Batt. landed in third spot and the Third, last. A push, a sqush, a scramble, and the boll rolls on. BOWLING ... Battalion bowling was run off during the winter quarter when the weather was not suitable for outdoor sports. The alleys in the basement of Bancroft Hall were in constant demand during recrea- tion hours. Colored attendants set up the pins, and we knocked ' em down. This year the Fourth Batt. won the competition and the Third finished second. The Second and First came in third and fourth. FOOTBALL . . . The battalion football sea- son started about the middle of September and lasted until the end of the fall quarter, in December. Each team played a 9-game schedule among the other teams, and the team having the best record at the end of the season won the championship. The teams were coached by officers of the Batt. Executive Department who had had previ- ous football experience. The squads were equipped with regulation heavy gear for practice, and there were different colored game jerseys for each batallion. Physical contact, stamina, the ability to think Mid-winter finds the Third Batt basement looming with activity. WRESTLING . . . Always one of the favorite Academy sports, wrestling, with the decline of intercollegiate boxing, is fast becoming an important sport through- out the entire country. Officials of the Naval Pre-Flight schools have proven through scientific tests that for equivalent periods of workout, no other sport exercises as great a variety of muscles or contributes as much towards all-around coordination. The competition this year was exception- ally close. Although the eleventh com- pany won an undisputed first, the twelfth and nineteenth tied for second, and only a few points behind them, the thirteenth and eighteenth companies tied for third. 152

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Amateur Champ. Stevens fell one behind on the twentieth hole, giving Virginia their one point win. Peat and Barrow copped their matches with Peat taking the best ball. The Middies worked hard after this and gained a 7-2 victory over Penn. This was followed by a 7 -lM win over the Georgetown boys. The whole Navy squad made a good showing in both these games and nearly all came close to par. On May 27th our most important match rolled around — the one with Army. This also turned out to be our most exciting match. Things were running neck and neck until there were only two holes left. At this time Clark and Grosskopf were two down to the Army ' s best ball. They both took the seventeenth leaving them only one down. The eighteenth, which ended up hill after a four hundred and thirty-seven yard run, had to be won in order to keep from having to play off a tie. Clark was the first to get to the green. His second shot landed about forty feet from the cup. With the ease of an expert, Gib Clark sunk the ball and that, along with Grosskopf ' s par four, gave the Navy their one point margin to beat Army 5-4. Jim Stevens and Jack Peat, the men who were al- ways quiet during the match but managed to turn in the low scores, summed up the successful golf season by playing in the National Intercollegiate Matches at South Bend. Captain Jack Peat Professional Gene Sarazen and Admiral Wilson play a friendly match. Lou Grosskopf Jim Stevens Bill Barrow Gilbert Clark Harry Gunther Dove Paul rHE team started the season with a bang by giving Cornell a 9-0 shell- acking. Grosskopf, Peat, and Clark gathered low scores of 78 ' s out of the tough 72 par course at the Naval Academy. A shut-out like this boosted morale for the following encounter with Princeton at Princeton. The middies were playing on a new course at the Springdale Golf Club with a strong wind to add to their troubles. They showed the Princeton squad, how- ever, that sailors could do more than sail a ship in strong breezes, and they returned to Annapolis with a 6-3 victory. Jim Stevens, playing the number one position, was the low scorer of the day with a 76. The University of Pitt was the next team to fall before the Gold and Blue. Whitey Grosskopf burned up the course with a par 72, followed by Barrow with a 73. This all adds up to the fact that we defeated Pitt lyi to 1 . Fol- lowing this, the William and Mary group was blanked with a 9-0 score. It began to look as if nothing could stop the Navy. But, alas, the Navy linksmen met their equals. University of Virginia came up to offer Navy their only defeat of the season. The 5-4 score showed a close game. Things were pretty well tied up near the end of the match, so Jim Stevens had to continue play with Virginia ' s Murray, former Panama 151

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To the beginner as well os the polished player, volley-ball affords thrills and enjoyment. VOLLEY BALL ... A sport new to organized Academy athletics, volleyball was played by companies eleven to twenty during the fall term, and companies one to ten during the spring term. The courts were in the humid Annapolis out-of-doors, and good fellowship was notable in the league. Each team played two matches a week until it had played all of their teams in the league. The 15th company won the fall series. TENNIS . . . The fall sports were designed to make the most of our sunny season. .. .The Battalion tennis tournament was run off then, but the fickle Annapolis weather made it impossible to finish the matches. The Fourth Battalion team was so strong that they won un- questionably, despite the curtailed schedule. and co-ordination, and a brisk nine every afternoon went a long way to keep our minds and muscles rarin ' to go. . . .The Third Battalion won the competition, and the First and Second trailed. GYM.. . The Regiment kept the gym equipment on MacDonough Hall in constant use. Gymnastics demands precision, and is a contest be- tween men to determine their relative excellence in performing intri- cate exercises that are valuable to our training. During the fall of ' 42, the seventh company won the competition, and the first and third companies placed second and third. Facilities for developing Budges, Perrys, and Hunts. SOCCER... The Naval Academy more than any other school popular- izes soccer, for it is an international sport, and Naval officers often find opportunity in foreign countries to engage in a friendly game. It is a fast and rugged game, full of body contacts hardening a military person. The twentieth company won the fall competition; the thirteenth and eighteenth followed. BASKETBALL . . . Companies one through ten played basketball dur- ing the fall term. The teams were fairly evenly matched and the season saw many hard fought, close games. Forty-five games were played among the ten teams and the second company finished with the highest percentage of wins. The eighth company took second. SOFTBALL . . . Introduced but a few years ago, Softball has proved extremely popular with the midshipmen. Competition was keen and spirit high. Aside from participating in a comradely game, the ball- players got a good coat of tan, nice for the beach during leave, and re- lieved their study-hardened minds of worry and tension. The results of the competition are not available. Rangy muscles and powerful lungs from battalion crew. CREW . . . Each Battalion organized a crew equal of twenty men — midshipmen given excellent condition, stamina, and endurance by the sport. Each Battalion had daily practice and two races a week. The Fourth Battalion led the field from the first of the season to the last, and gained 227 points in the sports competition program. First and Second Battalions finished second and third respectively. SWIWMING... Throughout the fall term, the Battalions held daily practices and dual meets in the Academy Natatorium. The number of midshipmen participating in 1942 was second only to football. The Fourth Battalion won the greatest number of meets and the champion- ship, but was closely followed by the Third Battalion. GOLF... Many midshipmen who had opportunity to play golf before entering the Academy found it their favorite sport. It develops patience Farragut and Worden Fields have other uses than that of infantry. 153 •;;:aid«- 5«,